Smart Rivers? Maybe this is the way we should go?

What is SmartRivers?

SmartRivers is our scientifically robust, nationwide citizen science scheme that is helping to fill the evidence gap caused by cuts to statutory monitoring regimes.

Our river hubs collect and analyse invertebrate samples to provide invaluable, high-resolution data on invertebrate biodiversity and the pressures impacting wild fish.

How to enrol a hub and the commitment required

• To set up a SmartRivers hub we need a host organisation and a group of 8-10 volunteers to monitor 5 sites.
• The first year is the 'set up year' in which all the benchmarking and training takes place.
• For all rivers being added to the project, a professional scientist will come and complete an initial professional benchmark on your chosen 5 sample sites, in spring and autumn. This provides a scientific 'baseline' for your river and also helps us know what species we should teach you to identify. WildFish would be able to fund this.
• Training is two full days. Hubs are responsible for covering the training cost which is £1950 (the host organisations usually help unlock local funding for this).
• Once trained, the volunteers must sample twice a year (spring and autumn) and there are two pathways to choose from. Volunteers can 'sample and identify' where they do all the sampling and analysis themselves, or 'sample and send' where they collect the sample and post to a professional lab for identification. Sample and identify is free, whereas samples posted are £185 exc. VAT per sample. We provide the hub with a microscopes if completing your own ID, but you must obtain your own nets, buckets and sample preservative.

If this is something you feel would be of interest to your group I'd be happy to discuss in further detail - let me know.

All the best,

Lauren

Lauren Harley
SmartRivers Project Manager